It was a huge pleasure to receive a parcel from my friend Leszek with this new album by Hellias this afternoon, because this is certainly another great release by this old maniac from the brutal Polish lands! This album is absolutely amazing! Very weel-produced, without sounding too modern, of course, with excellent compositions, made by people who really know what thrash metal is about, and a brilliant artwork which increases the enjoyment, something which is already a registered trademark of Thrashing Madness releases.

Well, Hellias is a very known old band from Eastern Europe and their history dates back to the 80’s, when they released their first demo during the glorious times – i.e., the best time of the metal history – and surely this positive context of ebullition and creation has influenced their genetic code forever. This can be more than clearly heard in these12 tracks recorded in this “Eight cardinal sins”, their fifth full-length, and all of them sound original and fresh, despite their afilliation to the roots of metal. By roots of thrash metal, I surely mean the best influences ever: Exodus, Dark Angel and surely, Slayer, one of my favorites bands ever! So, of course, I got totally bewildered and fascinated by Hellias music at the fist chord, because it dragged me into my past with amazing riffs, lots of adrenaline, great drumming and pulsating bass lines. Add to this mixture the strong and harsh, although intelligible, vocals of Foreman, that show a clear influence of the unique Tom Araya and you’ll have a clear idea of the power of this album. It’s fucking heavy, you can bet!

Besides this, they caught more my attention for their total independence in relation to these influences, because, despite all this background, they still manage to keep thir uniqueness, avoiding the simple cloning of the old thrash metal albums. One of the features that clearly ensures their musical personality is that they make a kind of midpaced thrash, without giving central importance to speed, as most of the bands of the genre do. Also, it’s impossible not to notice the amazing work of composition mainly conducted by Goolary, their excellent guitar player, who coordinates a perfect combination of riffs and solos with Karol Mandozzi (who played in the mighty Terrordopme too), plus the harmonic integration of bass and drums, respectively played by Karson and Wojna. As we can guess by the result of this album, they are experienced musicians, most of them being over 40, which is something that counts a lot when it comes to metal. After all, some of the best bands in activity these days are formed by older guys who have learned a lot during their careers of more than 25 years.

As for the tracks here, I simply can’t mention one or two favorite songs, because the album is very coherent and they were able to keep it interesting from the beginning until the end. I just would like to call the attention to some guests who took part here, like the boss Leszek Sianozecki, Olaf Rozanski and Lukasz Zielony, among others. This also shows that Hellias has a good reputation among the Polish bands, something that only years of heartfelt dedication can give to any band. So, all these aspects prove that maturity, dedication and originality count a lot when it comes to releasing great and memorable albums amidst thousands of metal releases we see nowadays. Hope they keep their flame alive for many years more to gift metal fans with more high quality metal like we hear in this “Eight cardinal sins”, an album that goes to my playlist of the year, for sure!

Cristiano Passos